Ukadiche Modak
'Ukadiche Modak' is a classic Indian recipe from a coastal state - Maharashtra. Modak's are prepared as offering to lord Ganesha for festivals; especially for 'Ganesh Chaturthi'. Beautifully shaped modak's not just look pretty but tastes amazing too. These ukadiche modak's are prepared using rice flour with stuffing of coconut and jaggery. This stuffing is lightly flavoured with cardamom and nutmeg powders.
Ingredients
- 1&1/2 cups rice flour white rice
- 1&1/2 cups water
- 2 cups freshly shredded coconut
- 1 cup jaggery
- 2 tbsp ghee
- 1 tsp cardamom powder
- nutmeg powder pinch
- salt pinch
- 1/4 cup milk optional
- saffron strands few
- water for steaming
Instructions
- Start with heating 1&1/2 cups of water in a saucepan.
- Once water starts boiling, gradually add rice flour and keep stirring it continuously.
- Once rice flour is added, you can switch off the gas. Flour will soak all the water. Please ensure no lumps are formed and you can kneed the dough properly.
- Add milk, salt and 1 tbsp of ghee to it. Kneed the dough thoroughly until it's soft.
- Cover the dough and keep aside for few minutes. Our ukad is ready now.
- Next step is to make stuffing. Heat a pan over medium heat and add mixed coconut - jaggery into it.
- Keep stirring the mixture but do not overcook it. We just need to remove excess moisture from grated coconut.
- Add 1 tbsp of ghee, cardamom and nutmeg powder to stuffing. Let the mixture cool down to room temperature.
- Next is a moulding process, take the dough and kneed it again just to ensure it is not too soft or hard.
- Make small lime sized balls of the dough and roll it like small round shaped puri.
- Take a single puri on your palm and start pinching these puris from outer edge towards the centre to form petals.
- Add stuffing at the centre and again pinch each petal from the edges towards the centre to secure the shape.
- Now roll these little petals together in anticlockwise direction to form a Modak. Refer the video attach in the post.
- Once all Modak's are ready, arrange them over a plate for steaming. You can use banana leaf or cotton cloth below to ensure they won't stuck to steaming plate.
- Add saffrons strands into little warm milk and put 1 saffron strand over each Modak. Though this is completely optional, it will give nice look and flavour to our Modak.
- Meanwhile heat water in the steamer over high heat.
- Once steamer is ready, transfer modak plate into steamer and steam for around 10 minutes.
- Check after 10-12 minutes, lightly touch the modak with wet fingers. If dough is not sticking to fingers, means our ukadiche modak's are ready.
- Serve them hot with little ghee over the top.
Notes
- To make a ukad - use water and rice flour in 1:1 proportion.
- Knead the dough for ukad whiles its warm. You may use backside of wooden spatula or small bowl for kneading.
- Cook coconut-jaggery mixture until excess moisture is removed. Do not overcook it, else jaggery will turn sticky and ruins the mixture.
- Use readymade moulds to shape the modak, if required.
- 10-12 minutes on steamer should be enough for modak. Ensure steamer has boiling water before transferring modak's onto it. Steam over high heat.